MINESSAA: Tokyo Highlights

Senso-ji Temple: This is the biggest, the oldest and the most visited Buddhist temple that is located in the heart of the city.

Even though there are many ways to reach the temple itself, the most popular one is to pass through Kaminarimon (the thunder gate). This is the outer gate for the temple and is built to symbolize Asakusa region and the entire Tokyo city.

After the gate, you find yourself in Nakamise Dori, where you can find hundreds of shops that you can find crafts, souvenirs, old CDs or even traditional clothing.

I suggest you not to pass this street without trying some of the traditional street food items, such as rice cakes or crackers and green tea-flavored treats.

At the end of the 200 meters long street, you find yourself in the Hozomon gate, which leads you to the main hall and a five stored pagoda. We got unlucky about the five stored pagoda, since it was under construction during our visit. The pagoda is some sort of graveyard, containing memorial tablets for families and individuals and this is why even without the construction it is not possible to enter without a special permit that is given to the families.

In both sides of the temple, you can find shops that sell official Senso-ji merchandise; amulets, scrolls or fortunes, that might make pretty good souvenirs if you need. In front of the main temple, there is the fire, whose smoke is believed to cure any ailments you might have and bring you health.

The biggest building in the main hall is the main temple. According to the legend, two fisherman brothers along the Sumida River caught the statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy in the Buddhist belief. They put the statue back into the river not to mess up with his peace, somehow, it always found a way to come back to them. Eventually, the leader of the region suggested to build a shrine for the goddess of Kannon. The construction of the temple was completed in 645.

Once you climb up the main shrine, observe the roofs and the detailed mural art on them. I also loved looking back to the main square and the gates from the top of stairs.

Akihabara district: Electronic heaven that makes Tokyo real Tokyo. Recently, the same district got also pretty famous not with the giant and low-cost shops that you can purchase all kinds of electronic devices and little gadgets, but also with shops or game rooms dedicated to anime and manga cultures. It actually gets much more fun with the manga culture, especially seeing all those Japanese girls in costumes, handing flyers to the people passing through the streets.

Chuo Dori is the main street through the district and you can find your way through the big shopping malls with little local shops located in it.

My biggest suggestion is that do your search well about where would you want to go and what would you want to purchase before going there, hoping that you'd find your way eventually. The whole district is huge and unless you actually have specific destinations in your mind, you can spend a whole day and not find what you actually need. Plus, if you intend to purchase an electronic device, do not forget to confirm the compatibility of the voltage or current specifications between the device and your hometown.

Since the region is pretty famous among tourists for shopping, you can also find hundreds of tax free souvenir shops with really reasonable prices. This might be the perfect place for you to shop for your family and friends.

Shibuya: If we have to use one image to describe Tokyo the best, this would be literally any image from Shibuya district. One thing you cannot leave Tokyo without doing should be to join the crowd as they cross the Shibuya crossing. According to the rumors, this is the busiest intersection in the whole world especially in the rush hours - almost a thousand people hit the road from different directions all at once at every green light.

Right next to the Shibuya crossing, you must also see the Hachiko statue. If you don't know the story about him, please see the movie or google it because it is amazing! A Japanese dog called Hachiko used to visit the Shibuya train station every day to welcome his human when he used to come back home from work. When the human died in 1930s, Hachiko kept coming to the station and waiting for his human to come back for years until also he passed away. As a symbol of the unconditional love between people and dogs, they built a statue of Hachiko. I'm not crying, it has to be the leaves flying around!

I tried 2 shops in this area and let me talk about my experience: before going, I heard that Shibuya 109 was highly recommended for cloth shopping. And then seeing all those advertisements around the town made me go and try shopping with high expectations to find something Tokyo style or something particular. This is obviously a personal choice because I love how Japanese girls get dressed and I love wearing kimonos in the daily life. But there was not. And the prices were not very appealing - not expensive but eventually wasn't worth. OK, except the doge counter that I've found!

Tokyo hands: All the blogs I've read about Tokyo agreed on how amazing this huge shop called Tokyo Hands in Shibuya claiming that "if you are searching for a product and if it's not here, it means that it doesn't exist and you can never find it anywhere - ever!" It made us curious and decided to give it a shot. But let me tell you that it was a huge disappointment! If I was a local, I would be happy to visit it every now and then, every time I need an item for home or I need to purchase some stationary products. But if you are hoping to find some crazy Japanese item that can be a perfect souvenir to bring home, then it's not the place you are looking for. (I'll come back to that soon!)

Meiji Jingu Shrine: In Japan, they have shrines with completely different architecture serving for other religions. Senso-ji is the biggest Buddhist temple and Meiji Jingu Shrine is the biggest Shinto shrine in the center of Tokyo. So it is definitely worth a visit!

To enter the shrine, you should first pass through huge torii gates and walk through calm streets between tall trees. The rumor says that in this forest, there are almost a thousand trees, which are donated from all around Japan during the construction of the shrine.

As you walk to the shrine, you will also pass through these huge white barrels with Japanese writings and paintings on their cover. These are straw-covered sake barrels, indicating the region and the producer of the sake inside them.

When you reach the cleansing station you see in the picture below, you can assume that you finally reached the shrine. The local and tourist visitors are asked to pour water over their hands and mouth using the wooden cups to cleanse themselves spiritually.

Finally, we reach the main area. The place can be one of the most peaceful place I have ever been in my whole life! We were lucky to catch some sunset light over the temple as we were there, so this is highly recommended!

According to their belief, the visitors can write their wishes and gratitude on the tablets in a decorative way for the temple gods. These tablets are usually hung on a tree and offered to the gods during the following morning ceremony. The tablets can be bought right next to the main building. Even though I didn't leave any mark or gratitude to the temple gods, I was happy to appreciate what other people left behind.

Right next to Yoyogi temple, there is the biggest part in Tokyo: Yoyogi park. It seems that this amazing green land is the best way to spend a sunny weekend afternoon for locals, for families and for teenagers to be together, relax and get some fresh air. We kinda thought that "hey, they have the same name this technically should mean that we can pass from the park to the temple. So, we took a little walk around the park as well. But it turns out we were wrong and they were completely independent from each other. After walking the whole day already being amazed by the wonders of Japan, it was really impossible for us to appreciate this little walk in the park. Great for locals tough!

Imperial Palace: Imperial palace is where there used to be the Edo castle and the current residence for the imperial family. Edo castle was where Japan used to be ruled when the capital was Tokyo, until it was transferred to Kyoto.

The inner grounds of the palace is open to public only on certain festive days. There is also a museum that you can visit to see the collections and come historic items. In order to enter, you need to reserve your seat in advance free of charge. If not, you can simply visit the gardens for free. To keep track of the number of visitors, you are asked to get a ticket while entering and return it on the way back.

Without the reservation or anything else, you can simply walk around this amazing garden situated among high skyscrapers. We enjoyed it, a 1 hour visit should be enough tough.

Tsukiji fish market: Tsukiji fish market is the district with a few blocks with retail shops and restaurants where the main focus is on fresh and processed seafood, Japanese food components or food-related products.

The fish market is open around 5 in the morning and this is when you can find the freshest fish ever. Obviously, the restaurants from Tokyo come and buy the fresh fish everyday from here. The place is open until 1 in the afternoon. Even though you can find some restaurants also in the late afternoon, the main attraction here is the fish market itself, so try reaching here early in the morning.

As a big metropolitan, Tokyo doesn't have too many animals on the streets. In fact, since people think that it is kinda rude to eat outside the streets, there are not even pigeons! But, the fish markets get pretty fun because there are fat, sleepy cats all around - it must be heaven for them!

This region is the home for famous robot show. It requires an online reservation in advance to ensure your entrance for the visit. The fee is about 8000 yen/person to plus what you consume during your stay. It is a fact that it is one-of-a-lifetime experience that should be taken, but we felt that it is also a fact that these kind of events are mostly tourist traps that all budget travelers better avoid. Plus, all videos and photos during the show are forbidden and in Japan, forbidden actually means forbidden! Anyways, summing up all these facts, we decided to skip it. Yet, I have to admit that as both robotic engineers, we left a little part of our hearts there at the door.